I've recently started hypering my film, and have found that it would appear that I don't know what I'm doing. :-) The several rolls of hypered RG 200 that I've had processed have all come back with the base looking like there was no fogging whatsoever. My setup is a Lumicon 600 tank with the hand pump. I'm hypering the film in the cannister. The first couple of rolls I hypered at 55C for 2 hours (I do not yet have the regulator probe, so the tank gets a little warm). The second set I hypered at the same temp for 2 1/2 hours. All rolls appear as if no hypering has been performed. I took the film to a local processor that has a densitometer, and they read the following:
R=0.37 G=0.70 B=0.92 For the second roll, R=0.37 G=0.73 B=0.93
The calibration strip returned the following: R=3.01 G=2.96 B=2.97
The folks at the lab couldn't tell me what and/or if these numbers had to do with the information that I'm seeking: how much above non-hypered film were my test strips -- perhaps a case of speaking two different languages, or my not knowing what's what... On APML and in other resources, it seems that the discussion is always around ND steps above clear. Is that what these numbers show, only split out into RBG values? Do I need to have a non-hypered roll processed and measured for comparison? Is it necessary to combine the RGB values above to get to a proper "combined" value to determine the proper level of base fog? On the subject of measuring the amount of base fog, does anyone know where I might acquire a calibrated test strip? Typically, how valid are test values from one film lot to the next? Do I need to be concerned about the variation, or is that variation typically small enough to effectively ignore.
Whew... Lots of questions.
-- Gil